The family of a Carlsbad High School graduate who never resurfaced following a surfing accident in Hawaii has issued a statement thanking the Coast Guard, lifeguards and fire officials who searched for him.

Kirk Passmore, 32, was overcome by a huge wave on Oahu’s North Shore on Wednesday at an outer reef known as Alligator Rock. Rescuers conducted an extensive search for him in the water and from the air.

Passmore’s family issued the statement through Brigham Young University-Hawaii, where his father, David Passmore, is employed, a university spokesman said.

The accident was captured on video by water cinematographer Larry Haynes, who was filming the large sets from the water that day. Haynes told television station KITV in Honolulu that Passmore’s father contacted him and said that he wanted Haynes to “share his son’s last wave with everyone.”

The family statement described Passmore as an expert surfer.

“He was not new to big-wave surfing, having surfed most of the well-known big wave locations, including Waimea Bay, Sunset Beach, Pipeline and outer reefs on the north shores of Hawaii,” the family said. “He was a familiar face at Todos Santos off Baja California. He also surfed Mavericks in Northern California and Puerto Escondido in mainland Mexico.”

Passmore, who was born in Orem, Utah, lived three years in the south coast of France and moved to Hawaii’s North Shore in spring 2012. He first started going to Hawaii when he was 14 years old, his family said. He was a part-owner of Third Stone Surfboards in Waialua and a manager at Banzai Sushi Bar in Haleiwa, where he lived.

He graduated from Carlsbad High School in 1999 and was a member of the school’s surfing team. He had an athletic childhood.

“As a youth, he was active in Pop Warner football, Little League Baseball, and basketball, but his love was in surfing,” the family said.

Friends and relatives held a vigil in Hawaii Thursday night. Tributes to Passmore were posted on the Third Stone Facebook page, along with a picture of him surfing.

One poster, Samuel Bendenoun, wrote that Passmore spread “love and respect” wherever he went and lived each day “with pure energy, great intensity and lots of passion.”

“I know you were having the best day of your life out there ... you were in your element,” he said.

Tributes also were posted on Internet surfing magazine sites.

“You were liked by many and well-known in this area,” Richard Lavoie of Carlsbad wrote on surfingmagazine.com. “Your parents should be proud, you lived life to the fullest and followed your dreams.”

In addition to his father and stepmother, Karey Passmore of Sunset Beach, Hawaii, he is survived by his mother, Diane Passmore of Orem; sisters Alyson Adams of Highland, Utah, and Merrily Roberts of Encinitas; and brother Matthew Passmore, who is serving a mission in New York City for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.